Inside the world of women crime bosses

From the coauthor of Mafia Queens of Mumbai comes a new anthology on women who “ruled rackets, outsmarted dons and bent entire systems to their will.” Mafia Queens of India expands the geographical scope of the previous book, but follows similar beats, taking readers from one audacious story to another.

- NEHA BHATT

Some of the stories in Mafia Queens ofMumbai inspired film adaptations, such as Gangubai Kathiawadi, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Mafia Queens of India, too, seems poised for the screen. Written by crime writer S Hussain Zaidi with his wife Velly Thevar, an investigative reporter, it features women of many stripes, all fierce and single-minded. The book reads like a nonstop potboiler, moving from one dramatic chapter to another, from The Queen of Numbers: Jaya Chheda, to The (Not So) Bholi Punjaban.

The book opens with Mr Zaidi’s journey to meet a mysterious figure who people call Akka, once a key aide to one of Mumbai’s mob bosses Varadarajan Mudaliar. It took considerable time and effort to track her down. Making his way through a jungle to find her home at the edge of a Kerala village, the author is struck by her charisma. Even as she narrates her life story to him in meticulous detail, she extracts a promise all writers dislike: To keep her story anonymous. Mr Zaidi decides to name her Cleopatra. The book begins and ends with her, and is also the strongest thread in the book.